EU-US summit targets long-running disputes

Date: 14/12/00

By Craig Winneker

EU LEADERS preparing to meet their American counterparts in Washington next week may get the feeling that confusion reigns every time they show up for a summit.

Two years ago, President Bill Clinton was impeached by Congress and American warplanes were bombing Iraq on the day of the EU-US get-together. This time around, the summit occurs on the same day

(18 December) as the US electoral college meets to close the final curtain on the country's long-disputed presidential election.

Still, despite the uncertainty of the past five weeks, many of the agenda items confronting Clinton and Union leaders are all too familiar.

Speculation has been intense that Clinton will use his last Union summit to end long-running trade disputes over beef from cows raised with artificial growth hormones and banana import quotas. European Commission officials also continue to express optimism that deals can be struck at the meeting.

But progress on resolving these quarrels has been patchy. US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said last week a banana agreement could be struck in time for the summit, but political uncertainty in the EU over a proposal to remove import tariffs on 'everything but arms' to the world's poorest countries has complicated the issue. African, Caribbean and Pacific countries fear they will be hit hard by the initiative and Union leaders may be reluctant to deal them another blow by radically changing the banana regime.

Political questions are also making a beef agreement harder to come by while the EU struggles to contain mad cow disease (BSE) and calm consumer fears about the safety of European meat. "It is all very much in flux because of the BSE incidents," said one US diplomat. "Public safety might argue that you would encourage a BSE-free source of beef, but politics dictates otherwise."

The Union has shown no willingness to open its market to hormone-treated beef, and Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy's offer to raise the amount of high-quality, hormone-free US beef allowed into the EU temporarily has failed to satisfy the American cattle industry.

But officials on both sides of the Atlantic do not rule out some kind of agreement in Washington. "Something will be said at the summit but what will be delivered is not clear yet," said one.

US leaders will also use the meeting to seek more assurances that the EU's planned new defence force will not undermine NATO. But overshadowing everything will be questions about which direction US policy will take in the next administration. "The speculation is that Congress is going to be less interested in seeking confrontations," said one US official. Republican George W. Bush's victory also means the new administration may be even more willing to remove trade barriers with Europe.